Middlebury, Vt., rail tunnel under green considered

Local, state and Vermont
Railway officials are exploring the concept of installing a concrete tunnel
beneath the railroad bridges at Merchants Row and Main Street in downtown
Middlebury, according to the Addison Independent. This new tunnel, officials
believe, could provide a perfect fix for the two ailing bridges while allowing
enough vertical clearance to accommodate double-stack freight cars that railway
officials need to run from Whitehall, N.Y., to Burlington.

Middlebury selectmen and
Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) officials have spent the better part
of four years discussing possible fixes for the structures that support
Merchants Row and Main Street as they pass over the railroad tracks. Those
overpasses are rapidly deteriorating and are on the VTrans construction to-do
list.

Trouble is, the leading
repair scenarios have called for raising both Merchants Row and Main Street at
the bridge locations. It's a scenario that Middlebury leaders find unacceptable
because it would disrupt current sidewalk and pavement schemes on the two busy
streets by placing the roadbed above the sidewalks in places - also posing a
potential hazard to pedestrians.

VTrans and Vermont Railway
officials had proposed the raised roadbeds on Merchants Row and Main Street
because they need to raise the clearance under the underpasses to a minimum of
21 feet to accommodate the taller double-stack freight cars the industry has
moved to during the past decade.

The current clearance is
around 18 feet, and digging the rail bed deeper under the bridges had not previously
been seen as a viable option because solving the drainage issues would be
costly. The current proposal calls for digging the roadbed down to an appropriate
depth to accommodate a 600-foot concrete tunnel spanning the length of the two
underpasses. The project was described by Vermont Railway President David
Wulfson in a Sept. 11 letter to Transportation Secretary David Dill: "The rail
infrastructure would be excavated and pre-caste concrete boxes with direct
fixation rail track would be installed," Wulfson wrote in his letter. "This fix
would resolve the long-term chronic town bridges and rail issues concurrently.
This proposal would also eliminate the geotechnical concerns in the area."

And it would also give
downtown Middlebury a few hundred square feet of extra real estate. That's
because the tunnel would fill in a currently open spot behind Triangle Park
that extends to St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. Town officials said that area
on top of the tunnel could be sod and seeded.

"It seems like a fascinating
idea," said Middlebury selectboard Chairman John Tenny, though he cautioned, "it's
expensive."

Indeed, Wulfson has
tentatively estimated the project at $7 million, a sum he suggested would "create
local jobs for the area." Wulfson suggested that a large portion of the project
might be financed with federal economic stimulus money.

Since the Legislature has
already placed an emphasis on rail improvements along the state's western
corridor, Wulfson reasoned that it would make sense to include the Middlebury
tunnel as part of the upgrades. The current estimate for the
Whitehall-to-Burlington rail improvements is $38 million, according to Wulfson.

But not everyone is on
board with that idea. If the state pursues a Middlebury tunnel, said John
Zicconi, VTrans director of planning, outreach and community affairs, it will
not be with federal stimulus dollars. He explained that the state's project
list for rail-related stimulus money can consist only of projects related to
passenger service. Anything inserted in the application that appears to be
intended for freight instead of passenger rail service, he surmised, would ruin
the state's chances of getting any rail stimulus money.

That said, Zicconi believes
the tunnel will get some serious consideration - along with more conventional
repair solutions - for the Middlebury railroad spans. The work is to be done
after the Cross Street Bridge and Pulp Mill Bridge projects are completed
during the next few years.